The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) report—which led to the renewal of Bromfield’s accreditation, but also pointed out areas of improvement—gives Bromfield high marks on its standards for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. The school provides a variety of course offerings for its students, it notes, and Bromfield students have many opportunities for higher-level thinking, exploration of in-depth projects, and work beyond the classroom. The report commends the qualified and dedicated administration, faculty, and support staff members who, it says, provide a variety of instructional strategies in an attempt to appeal to different learning styles. The report acknowledges that Bromfield students have achieved success on a variety of standardized tests, and that analysis of those results will lead to further improvements in Bromfield’s programs.
But the report also contains numerous recommendations for improving the quality of the academic programs and services Bromfield provides its students. In this second installment of our two-part examination of the NEASC report, we’ll take a closer look at the most important of these.
Aligning key NEASC concerns with Bromfield beliefs and expectations
A recurring recommendation throughout the NEASC report is that the ways that curriculum, instruction, and assessment align with and reinforce the school’s 21st century learning beliefs and expectations must be documented and then implemented consistently. The report also says that teachers need to provide opportunities for every student to practice the 11 critical thinking skills identified by the faculty, to employ instructional practices that help all students achieve the school’s goals, and to ensure that assessment always informs instruction and curriculum. Bromfield’s own self-study and the NEASC report advocate that teachers be given time to collaborate on these issues and time for the professional development that would help them improve in those areas.
Principal Jim O’Shea and the school’s NEASC Follow-up Committee have assembled an impressive schedule of how and when these recommendations will be addressed. When O’Shea presented the chart at a January School Committee meeting, the board congratulated the team for its hard work and offered support for its on-going efforts and proposals for professional development.
Here’s a closer look at some of NEASC’s evaluation criteria and recommendations, and how the Bromfield administration and staff are working to respond to them.
Curriculum: A need for documentation and consistent implementation
A theme throughout the recommendations is the need for greater consistency in documentation, implementation, and review of Bromfield’s curriculum.
Although the Bromfield’s self-study prescribes a common format for its curriculum offerings, NEASC found that the guides are not consistent and that there is no school-wide template or common format for curriculum guides. Many study units do not include essential questions (a need already identified by the self-study), and critical thinking skills are not consistently referenced in the curriculum guides or in individual unit plans.
To address this lack of consistency in many areas of the curriculum, NEASC recommends that Bromfield develop and implement a school-wide format for curriculum documents that is consistent, comprehensive, and fully identifies where learning expectations will be implemented and measured in the curriculum. The school’s follow-up chart states that a common template for curriculum has already been established and that departments are in the process of using the template to align the curriculum.
The report states that for consistency and accountability, Bromfield should develop a school-wide process to ensure the alignment between the written and taught curricula. Although NEASC made no recommendation in the area of curricular coordination and vertical articulation between and among academic areas or with the elementary school, the report cites gaps in this area.
The report found a lack of instructional technology available to students within the classroom and stated that the resources of the library/media center are out-of-date. However, the Bromfield follow-up chart shows that steps to meet these recommendations are already well underway.
Instruction: Aligning what is taught with beliefs and expectations
The chief criticism of Bromfield’s instruction is lack of consistency, particularly in aligning beliefs and expectations with what is actually taught and in the use of differentiated instruction within the classroom.
The self-study reports that a majority of the faculty is familiar with the school’s beliefs about learning and uses them to inform instruction. However, NEASC found that many teachers are unable to articulate how their instructional practices align with learning beliefs and critical thinking skills. Teachers report that they want more formal opportunities for discussion of instructional strategies and collaboration across disciplines.
NEASC recommends that Bromfield ensure that instructional strategies are sufficiently differentiated to meet the needs of all learners. The report states that many teachers work with students to personally help them meet the school’s learning expectations, but strategically differentiated techniques are systemically lacking. Student-support professionals report that varied instructional strategies would better serve the needs of struggling students within the classroom.
The Follow-Up Committee’s chart shows a schedule for meeting these recommendations, with Principal O’Shea and department leaders already planning time and professional development opportunities for teachers to collaborate on instructional strategies. Also in progress is a form that teachers can use to document differentiated instruction and multi-tiered learning opportunities within each class.
Assessment: A need for ‘snapshots along the way’
The last standard in NEASC’s Teaching and Learning strand is “Assessment of and for Student Learning.” This title implies that assessment is not only about evaluating an individual student but also about using assessment to inform curriculum and instruction for better student learning. This standard has the longest list of recommendations; chief among them are that teachers understand and use formative assessments and that teachers use assessments to change instructional strategies for better outcomes.
In what seems like a bit of a mixed message, the NEASC report suggests that teachers should rely less on summative assessments, such as unit tests, final papers, and MCAS to adjust curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. Instead, NEASC suggests that a renewed emphasis on formative assessments, “snapshots of progress along the way,” and their role in adjusting instructional strategies will benefit all students.
The report recommends the use of “anchoring assessments directed by the school itself.” These data would be integrated into a review of instructional practices. While the follow-up chart shows that addressing the assessment recommendations are mostly “planned for the future,” the work to educate teachers on formative assessment and to determine its consistent implementation is currently “in process.”
NEASC recommends that teachers collaborate on the development, implementation, and use of both individual and shared rubrics across all disciplines. The report states that many teachers use “scoring guides” to determine a grade; only some teachers use rubrics as a more analytic and comprehensive tool to assess and inform student learning.
Many teachers provide opportunities for students to revise and resubmit work, and both students and teachers remark that the inclusion of a feedback-revision element in the curriculum allows for students to better understand the learning objectives and achieve a better academic outcome. NEASC recommends that rather than putting the responsibility on students to approach teachers for revision opportunities, there should be a school-wide direction about revision and resubmission that aligns with the school’s expectations.
Support of Teaching and Learning
About half of the NEASC recommendations fall under its heading of “Support of Teaching and Learning: School Culture and Leadership, School Resources for Learning, and Community Resources for Learning.” Bromfield acted immediately on those issues in the list that directly support student well-being. The school has also made faculty support a priority and has established a plan for discussion and collaboration time and opportunities for professional development and its follow through. Some recommendations concerning safe storage have already been addressed.
While citing a safe, supportive culture and strong faculty-student relationships, the NEASC report recommends a formal program at the high school to ensure that every student has an adult with whom he or she has a connection, beyond the guidance counselor; someone who knows the student well and assists the student in achieving school expectations. In response to this, Bromfield established an Advisory Committee in the fall of 2012 and has been working on an advisory program, with initial recommendations to be presented in spring of 2013.
NEASC recommends a written guidance program (already documented and being implemented) and encourages the school to follow up on concern among several staff members who feel the addition of an adjustment counselor would greatly benefit the implementation of services. The school did this during the fall of 2012, resulting in the recommendation for such a counselor appearing in the fiscal 2014 school budget proposal.
The report emphasizes the need to ensure formal opportunities for professional collaboration and protocols that ensure professional development results in practices that address curriculum but, in particular, formative assessments and instructional practices to target the learning needs of every student.
There have been a few lapses in teacher evaluation as the new system has been developed, and the school needs to ensure that supervision and evaluation is timely for every teacher and serves as a vehicle for continuous improvement. Principal O’Shea says that the new teacher evaluation system is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2013, with training for evaluators to begin this spring.
The report finds much to commend in community resources for learning. The Harvard Schools Trust and parent and community groups supplement the school’s financial resources, and there is widespread involvement of parents and community in academic and extra-curricular activities.
As the School Committee has expressed on behalf of the community, there is deep appreciation for the untold hours that administrators, faculty, and staff have already spent in self-study preparation for the NEASC evaluation and for the ongoing time and energy it will take to meet the recommendations.
